Performance

Performance improvement services that enable plants to increase competitiveness under ever changing business conditions are very important for fiber producers.


Power cost reduction through advanced quality control and refiner segment change at Tembec, Pine Falls

Tembec’s Pine Falls mill in Canada teamed up with Metso to achieve optimal refining performance by consistently producing high quality pulp with minimal power costs. These objectives required the implementation of advanced controls and real time optimization technologies combined with refiner segment configuration changes on the main line refiners. Screening and reject refining optimization was added in a following project phase. A mill peak power control and optimization module was also implemented to manage the total mill power and peak load.

In this article you will learn how the results from the project were very positive. These results included: Specific energy in the main line refiners was reduced by 4% after refiner segment changes. This was increased to a 7% reduction in specific energy when the advanced control (AQC) was implemented on the main line refiners. After final optimization of the main line refiners and implementation of advanced control of the screens and reject refiner energy consumption was reduced more than 10%. Monthly peak power load at the mill was reduced from 80 MW to less than 75 MW, thereby cutting power costs. The freeness variance of the main line refiners was reduced by 31%. After reject and screen optimization, the variance of reject refiner freeness was reduced 10% A measurable increase in MD Tensile and CD Tear occurred on both paper machines.

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